The Commerce Committee is touting a poll that seems to indicate that Americans...

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A nationwide survey of 800 registered voters is being touted by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation because it purports to show that Americans are not interested in net neutrality legislation. Calling proposed net neutrality "onerous," the Committee's press materials say that the poll makes it clear that Americans prefer "video choice" over such regulations.

The poll also found that many Americans have no idea what net neutrality is, or why they should care; only 7 percent said that they had even heard or seen anything about net neutrality. When pollsters introduced the concept to poll takers, they described it solely as "enhancing Internet neutrality by barring high speed internet providers from offering specialized services like faster speed and increased security for a fee." When presented this way, 19 percent of respondents said that net neutrality was more important to them than "delivering the benefits of new TV and video choice," which received a 66 percent backing.

As a survey that purports to investigate American's opinions on net neutrality and television service, the survey is decidedly focused on the television side of things. Of the 13 questions in the survey, only two address net neutrality (Q1: have you head of it?; Q2: is it more important that expanding TV options?).

When asked how important a "Consumer Bill of Rights" would be that prevented Internet Service Providers from blocking or degrading access to Internet sites and services, 78 percent indicated that such a bill would be important, with 59 percent of that group calling it "very important." The poll did not differentiate this "bill of rights" from net neutrality, but its findings make it clear that protecting the integrity of the Internet is indeed important to Americans, regardless of terminology.

The poll of 800 registered voters was jointly conducted by the Glover Park Group and Public Opinion Strategies—two firms with Democratic and Republican histories, respectively. Senator Ted Steven's (R-AK) office called the poll "bipartisan." The poll had a 95 percent certainty with 3.46 percent margin for error.

Criticism of the poll

The very brief net neutrality description used by the pollsters is somewhat misleading insofar as it suggests that net neutrality would bar Internet Service Providers from selling faster service than is available today. Strict net neutrality does not concern itself with ultimate transfer speeds available to subscribers, but instead focuses on how different kinds of Internet traffic could be shaped by ISPs for anti-competitive purposes. For instance, strict net neutrality would not prevent an ISP from selling extremely fast 35Mbps connections, but it would prevent ISPs from privileging traffic for their own services for competitive advantage, or degrading the traffic of competing services. Furthermore, we have seen no net neutrality proposal in either the House or Senate that would address security offerings, leaving us puzzled as to its inclusion in the description of net neutrality.

This confusion would perhaps be forgivable if it were not for the fact that the poll engages in a bit of push polling on the issue of "choice" in cable. One question asks respondents to rate "how likely it is that you would see" a) lower prices, b) better customer service, c) new technology deployment, and d) higher quality programming if more choice were available. Varying by question, 73 to 83 percent said that these outcomes were "likely." There was no poll question to lead respondents down a road of benefits for net neutrality, however.

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Ken Fisher
Ken is the founder & Editor-in-Chief of Ars Technica. A veteran of the IT industry and a scholar of antiquity, Ken studies the emergence of intellectual property regimes and their effects on culture and innovation. Emailken@arstechnica.com//Twitter@kenfisher